Half fake baked

Consumers interested in experimenting with the legally "murky" world of synthetic drugs typically have two options, says MindHack: synthetic cannabinoids (vegetable fibers or plant leaves sprayed with manufactured chemicals that mimic the effect of weed) or stimulants like bath salts (made from synthetic cathinone.)

However, a new study on synthetic cannabinoids from Forensic Science International found a sample that contained both an untested type of synthetic cannabinoid and a "cathinone derivative." What's more, researchers found that a chemical reaction between those substances created "an unknown compound."

According to the abstract:

It is of interest that the product of a reaction between two different types of designer drugs, namely, a cannabinoid-related designer drug and a cathinone-type designer drug, was found in one illegal product.

MindHack puts it in plainer terms:

"In other words, while the makers intended to put both a cannabinoid and a stimulant in the same product, they probably never knew that the substances had chemically combined to produce a hybrid compound with completely unknown properties.

The legal high market is becoming an informal opt-in drug-testing experiment with paying subjects."

Just remember, kids: side effects may vary.

(h/t Digg via @Mims)

And when that great day comes, who better to produce the show than John McAfee, the antivirus pioneer and self-promoter extraordinaire who has been publicizing his month-long lam from the Belizean police in blog posts, social media and interviews with the seemingly never-ending line of journalists to travel to the Central American nation seeking interviews.

The latest:

In a blog post this morning, Mr. McAfee revealed that he and his young lover Sam have escaped Belize, with the aid of  a "'double,' carrying on a North Korean passport under my name, (who) was in fact detained in Mexico for pre-planned misbehavior, but due to indifference on the part of authorities was evicted from the jail and was unable to serve his intended purpose in our exit plan."

Reading through the garble, it sounds like Mr. McAfee—who has previously bragged about eluding police with disguises that included posing as a drunk German tourist, and a separate instance in which he shoved a tampon up his nose—sent a lookalike to Mexico on a fake North Korean passport in Mr. McAfee's name, with the intention of fooling the Belizean law enforcement. (To aid the ruse, Mr. McAfee's website posted the rumor that he'd been apprehended over the weekend.)

If the details are murky, we should soon know more: Mr. McAfee says he's currently in the company of two journalists from Vice, who will be posting video later in the day.

Still, this has all reached the stage where it's appropriate to ask whether Mr. McAfee is fooling the Belizean police, his friends in the media or himself—or all three.

Which is the question, more or less, that The New York Times asked in a very long piece in yesterday's paper, in which reporter David Segal noted both Mr. McAfee's self-serving hype of the Michaelangelo virus back in the 1990s, and Mr. McAfee's recent message board posts on his attempts to recreate a potent form of bath salts he called "the tan"—posts that Mr. McAfee would later call an elaborate hoax.

“I think he’s living a movie in his mind,” one source told Mr. Segal in what struck us as a sober take on the saga, “and he’s enjoying the movie.”

But then—aren't we all.

Well, just because the major networks have taken their microphones away doesn't mean Mr. McAfee has stopped talking. He continues to blog up a storm at the blog/graphic novel marketing site whoismcafee.com, and just yesterday he did Infowars and Joe Rogan.

So what's on Mr. McAfee's mind? Bath salts, for one thing. For another, Mr. McAfee reported earlier today that the official website of the Belize government was down, and surmised that the a) its servers had been overwhelmed by millions of emails from humanitarians inspired by Mr. McAfee to seek government reform b) the government had shuttered the site to prevent employees from learning of Mr. McAfee's campaign or c) that the website had been the target of a cyber attack.

(It bears noting that the website was working fine when we visited, though the contact page at travelbelize.org was indeed inoperative, as Mr. McAfee promised.)

Well, accepting for the moment that the site really was down, Mr. McAfee has an idea just who might be responsible for it:

I know that members of the hacktivist group Anonymous have been posting here.  I recognize your writing styles.  You are welcome here.  You are a powerful collective, more powerful than most realize, and I sympathise with your spirit.  However, if you are responsible, then this is not the time.  I need the Government to be able to read the displeasure of the world.  Deaf ears can hear nothing.   You would better serve the cause against censorship by writing emails voicing your displeasure for the time being.  If I am arrested, or am killed in a “robbery attempt” or accidently hang myself in jail, then please have at it.  Do your worst.  For now, bear with me.  If you are not responsible, I apologize for my presumptiveness.

(Photo: PC Mag)

John McAfee, creator of the anti-virus software your parents run on their desktop computer, is wanted by Belizean police for the alleged murder of his neighbor, fellow American expat Gregory Faull. Now he's on the lam, hiding from law enforcement who he claims will kill him if he's brought in for questioning. Perhaps his paranoia can be chalked up to his documented penchant for bath salts and other psychoactive drugs?

Wired nabbed an exclusive interview with Mr. McAfee from an unknown hiding place in Belize. He maintains his innocence--alluding to the fact that perhaps whoever killed Mr. Faull had meant to kill him instead--and elaborates on just how he managed to escape the clutches of the police. The whole thing sounds like an early-aughts drug movie starring Johnny Depp:

As Belizean police combed the property of expat antivirus pioneer John McAfee Sunday afternoon, McAfee was closer than they could have known. He’d seen them coming, and says he hid — burying himself in the sand with a cardboard box over his head so he could breathe. “It was extraordinarily uncomfortable,” he says, in an exclusive interview with Wired. “But they will kill me if they find me.”

Mr. McAfee also claims that following several complaints from neighbors about his barking pack of security dogs, the Belizean police subsequently poisoned the animals to death.

Still, Mr. McAfee has no intention of leaving Belize. "It’s the nicest place on earth," he told Wired. Except for that whole "the police want to kill you" thing.